Panel of Crazy...

Chris and I had our meeting with the attorney to put together our trust.  I thought it would be a simple process - placing our assets into a bucket.

Hold on just a sec.

Sorry.  I had to contain my laughter at the word 'asset'.

As it turns out, trusts involve more than property disbursement.  You have to set up executors, trustees, a springing power of attorney, etc.  It would take too long to explain why, but you have to choose a panel of three people to determine your mental competency.

"Obviously Chris would be on the panel..." the attorney said while writing on his yellow legal pad, "I need two more names.  Would you like to chose members of your family?" he asked.

"My family would declare me incompetent before the ink on the trust dried."

"You husband's family?"

Chris and I started laughing... hysterically.

"Oooook.  We'll come back to that" he said while making deep scratch marks across the paper.  "Who would you like to make your medical decisions in the event you become incapacitated?  This is literally the person who chooses to pull the plug."

I looked at Chris, a grin spreading across his face, "Well, Chris gets a million if I die so he'd be a little too motivated.  My sister is really frugal.  She'd pull the plug to save electricity.  Hmmm.  I guess I'll list my brother.  He's indifferent and that's as close to liking me as they come."

"In the event of a catastrophic loss, meaning, you, Chris, and baby boy die at the same time, who would you like to inherit your life insurance policies and retirement accounts?" he asked.

"We have 19 people in our immediate families.  No matter who we chose, someone will be mad.  Can we just make them all play a game of rock paper scissors?" I asked.

"Best three out of five?"  He said writing down the directive.

"Fantastic."

Overall, the meeting went well - though I am slightly concerned about some of my choices.  If I end up in a mental institution or... dead... and Chris buys a new truck, I picked the wrong people.

Oops.